From http://www2.businessday.co.za/cartoons/
From http://www.gado.co.ke/
More than a month after Zimbabwe went to the polls, electoral authorities on Friday finally announced a result in the presidential race: a do-over. The Zimbabwe Election Commission said opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai had won 47.9% of the vote to President Robert Mugabe's 43.2%. That means that, officially, no candidate has won an outright victory of more than 50%, a scenario which, under Zimbabwean electoral law, mandates a second round run-off within three weeks. "Since no candidate has received the majority of the valid vote cast... a second election shall be held on a date to be advised by the commission," chief elections officer Lovemore Sekeramayi told reporters in Harare.
The election commission is appointed by Mugabe's Zanu-PF regime and its independence has therefore been suspect. The rationale behind the regime's month-long wait before releasing the result and, then, its announcement of another round seems simple: delay and re-group. Mugabe's regime indicated a few days after the poll that it knew Tsvangirai had beaten Mugabe. (The state-controlled Herald newspaper reported Mugabe had failed to win re-election and predicted a second round run-off.) Meanwhile, the Election Commission announced that the MDC had won a majority in parliament and a few days ago confirmed that result after a recount.
The regime could hardly have been surprised that it lost the vote — Zimbabwe is a country with 80% unemployoment, 100,000% inflation and life expectancy in the mid 30s. But with a month to come to terms with that idea, it had time to gather its forces for a counterattack.
How does it plan to do that? Since the election, militias claiming loyalty to the regime have fanned out across the country, intimidating, beating and even killing opposition supporters. The MDC says around 20 of its members have died, a number impossible to verify because foreign journalists continue to be banned from entering Zimbabwe. But neither side disputes that hundreds of opposition activists have been arrested, nor that the seizure of farms belonging to opposition supporters has resumed, nor that several foreign journalists have been arrested and deported. This nationwide campaign of repression seems aimed at coercing support for Mugabe, and providing him with a sufficient electoral boost to win a run-off.
Such disdain for the democratic process begs a question: why bother with elections at all? Other African tyrannies have dispensed with the awkward trial of popular votes altogether, and ruled as unapologetic autocracies. So why the need for a veneer of respectability, however thin, in Zimbabwe? The answer lies in the psychology of Mugabe and his fellow liberation leaders, many of whom came from a background of elite academia. Mugabe himself has seven degrees, most of them earned during the 11 years he spent in prison when the country was called Rhodesia.
Though their regimes may be thuggish, these men are not thugs themselves. They are intellectuals and, as firm believers that their various opponents are merely puppets of the same imperial enemy they have always faced, it is intellectually crucial that they beat their former colonial masters at their own game. Western democracy, as they see it, is hollow. Western governments that were democratically elected at home pursued autocratic colonialism abroad. Even after the end of the age of imperialism, neo-imperialists funneled support to compliant dictators around the world, and relentlessly attempted to fix the rules of the global economy in their favor. According to this view, employing a little election tinkering here and a little intimidation there is merely playing by rules set by the West.
Whatever the merits of that argument, it is unlikely that Mugabe's regime will make the same mistake twice. One longtime resident of the capital of Harare warned in an e-mail a few days ago that Zimbabwe's opposition is in danger of losing its best chance at making a change. "What I find most frightening is that already the opposition and elements of the international community are subsiding back into apathy," he wrote. "I am hearing people saying, 'Well, you know, he'll get away with it this time, but he won't last forever, and there'll be another chance in five years.' There won't be. If he doesn't go, there will not be another chance. There will not be another election in five years time unless Zanu-PF is the only party contesting. There will be no MDC — everyone who opposes Zanu-PF will be in jail or in exile. There is a rapidly narrowing window of opportunity. This month. Perhaps next. After that, the country will be stolen from us for good."
Morgan Tsvangirai defeated President Robert Mugabe in the presidential
election but ZEC said he faces a run-off vote after he failed to win an outright
majority. He won 47.9% of the vote on March 29 and Mugabe took 43.2%, said Chief
Elections Officer Lovemore Sekeramayi. Three days after the harmonised election last month,Robert Mugabe ’s spokeman
wrote in The Herald that the initial presidential results were wrong
and had to be corrected. From what it appears MDC candidate Morgan Tsvangirai according to George
Charamba had 50% of the vote enough to avoid a runoff,but Charamba said that
result was rigged and needed to be “corrected”. Here is the quote from the article: ‘Quite a clever posture, if you ask me. But never important enough to
decide who governs Zimbabwe after those 21 days. What does is whoever rouses the
sleeping vote which materially is a Zanu-PF vote. The MDC knows this, and so
does the British. Which is why there was a bit of desperation to stampede both
Government and ZEC into announcing faulty results that would have rigged
Tsvangirai into an outright win. Or triggering civil unrest to open the way for
international mediation which would have handed power over to Tsvangirai.
‘ The result was announced after a verification process by the candidates to
check the result, but an opposition MDC spokesperson said the announcement was
scandalous and described it as “daylight robbery”. He said the party executive
would decide on the next move. Earlier, it had rejected the figure. Its initial
projections showed Tsvangirai had won 50.3% of the vote and it said it had ended
the rule of Mugabe, 84, who has led Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in
1980. A month-long delay to results had raised fears of widespread bloodshed in a
country suffering economic ruin. The official figures matched those leaked to
Reuters earlier in the week by government officials, in a sign the ground was
being prepared for a run-off. By law, a second round should be held within 21
days of a result being announced. Tsvangirai has raised doubts over whether he would take part in a run-off and
has been out of the country since shortly after the vote, trying to keep up
international pressure on Mugabe. Tsvangirai has suggested he could only contest
a second round if it was monitored by United Nations-led foreign observers. The
main international observer group during the first round was from Zimbabwe’s
neighbours. Meanhile ZANU says it wanted a recount in all constituencies and backtracked
to avoid disrupting the electoral process. “Nevertheless, the party’s candidates have filed petitions in 52
constituencies seeking the setting aside of the announced results and these
petitions have been filed with the Electoral Court,” Rural Housing Minister
Emmerson Mnangagwa reportedly told the press after the
announcement.Zimbabwe Metro
Yahoo News
by Susan Njanji 1
hour, 58 minutes ago
HARARE (AFP) - Zimbabwe came under mounting pressure
Saturday after the
long-delayed result of a contentious presidential poll
showed Morgan
Tsvangirai trouncing Robert Mugabe but falling short of an
absolute
majority.
As Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change
(MDC) rejected the official
result showing their leader winning 47.9 percent
against Mugabe's 43.2
percent, world capitals called for a credible run-off
and an halt to poll
violence.
The European Commission spokeswoman
underscored the need for "free and fair
second round that is conducted in a
proper manner."
"We are therefore calling for international observers
from the moment this
process starts," she told AFP.
Canadian Foreign
Minister Maxime Bernier called the results of the March 29
presidential vote
"contested," and said Tsvangirai had "a clear lead" over
Mugabe, in power
since 1980 when Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain.
Zimbabwe's
electoral commission on Friday said in the absence of an absolute
majority
by Tsvangirai, there should be a run-off on a date yet to be
announced.
In Washington, a State Department spokesman said the
results had "rather
serious credibility problems" and doubted a run-off
would be free and fair.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said
Mugabe had "clearly lost,"
adding: "His campaign of violence and
intimidation over the last month must
stop immediately."
US-based
rights watchdog Human Rights Watch echoed the call.
"Since the elections,
the ruling ZANU-PF party, the army and so-called war
veterans have conducted
a brutal state-sponsored campaign of violence,
torture and intimidation
against MDC activists and supporters," it said.
"The long delay in
announcing the results of the presidential elections and
the government's
politically motivated arrests of more than 100 presiding
election officers
around the country raises serious questions about the
official
tally."
The MDC's number two, Tendai Biti, said the electoral commission,
whose
leaders are appointed by the president, had inflated the number of
votes for
Mugabe by 47,000 and deflated those for Tsvangirai by
50,000.
"Morgan Tsvangirai is the president of the republic of Zimbabwe
to the
extent that he won the highest number of votes," he said, adding:
"Morgan
Tsvangirai has to be declared the president of
Zimbabwe."
Under the terms of the Zimbabwean constitution, Mugabe would
be declared the
automatic winner if Tsvangirai refused to take part in a
second round.
A senior Mugabe aide meanwhile accused the commission of
deflating the
figures for the incumbent but said the octogenarian leader
would contest a
run-off.
Mugabe's ZANU-PF party is challenging
another 52 results from elections in
which it lost control of parliament for
the first time since 1980.
Mugabe has remained silent on the outcome of
the presidential vote, but his
control of the security apparatus has led the
MDC to conclude that he will
seek to intimidate voters into giving him a
sixth term.
But the hero of the 1970s war against white minority rule has
found himself
increasingly isolated since election day with an international
outcry over
an upsurge in violence.
No Western observers were allowed
to oversee the ballot and a team from the
Southern African Development
Community (SADC) was widely criticised for
giving it a largely clean bill of
health.
However in a report released Friday after a follow-up mission to
monitor a
recent partial recount, SADC expressed alarm at rising levels of
violence
that the MDC claims has left 20 of its supporters
dead.
Meanwhile South African President Thabo Mbeki, a continental
heavyweight who
has been trying to defuse the political and economic crises
in Zimbabwe,
told religious leaders in Pretoria that he will send a mission
to probe
political violence in Zimbabwe, the SAPA news agency
reported.
"He assured us that he would do everything to ensure that a
second round of
the run-off election happens in an atmosphere of peace,"
Nyansako Ni-Nku,
head of the All-Africa Conference of Churches, was quoted
as saying.
"In order to achieve that, the president said that right away
they will
despatch a team to check every allegation of violence," he
said.
A one-time regional model, Zimbabwe now has the world's highest
rate of
inflation at 165,000 percent. Unemployment stands at over 80
percent, basic
foodstuffs are scarce and life expectancy has dropped to 36
years.
The Zimbabwean
Friday, 02 May 2008 20:08
A group of 18 snipers has
been assembled in Harare in a bid to
assassinate MDC officials following the
defeat of Zanu PF in the 29 March
elections, reports the MDC Press
department.
The killers have set up a satellite base opposite
Support Unit in
Chikurubi, Harare. The team has been supplied with 10 new
Toyota Hilux
single cab vehicles which have number plates that range from
ABD 1650 to
1659 among other equipment.
Their main targets in
the operation; are all MDC officials including
Members of Parliament and key
members of the MDC secretariat based at
Harvest House in central
Harare.
They have been briefed to kill or maim those officials who
are
involved in the day to day operations of the party.
The
Zanu PF youth militia and other armed people purporting to be from
the ZNA
and police have been assaulting MDC supporters across the
country in an
attempt to cripple the operations of the party following
victory in the 29
March elections.
At least 20 MDC activists have been killed by Zanu
PF members while
hundreds have been displaced from their homes after they
had been burnt
or destroyed. The displaced MDC supporters are now in
need of
humanitarian assistance. Scores of MDC activists have also been
arrested on
trumped up charges across the country as efforts to weaken the
party mount.
However, the MDC remains resolute it will emerge
victorious following
its impressive performance in the
elections.
Last week Harvest House was raided by the police who
took away
important MDC documents including computers in its attempts to
stifle the
operations of the party.
The Zimbabwean
Friday, 02 May 2008 06:06
By Lance Guma
A
headmaster at Chakumba Primary School in Makoni South is battling for
his
life after war veterans attacked him on Thursday. The MDC issued an
alert just a few moments ago, saying the war vets were led by
former CIO
director and cabinet minister Shadreck
Chipanga.
In the March 29 election Chipanga lost his seat to Pishai
Muchauraya
in the Makoni South constituency. No further details on
Thursday's attack
were available.
The Zimbabwean
Friday, 02 May 2008 06:00
We
have received confirmation that the group of over 200 ZANU-PF thugs
that descended on a farm compound in the Nyamandhlovu area outside
Bulawayo
had been ordered to do so by their MP, Obert Mpofu. The
farm belongs to
Wayne Munroe and was invaded Wednesday afternoon by
a gang that assaulted
the farm
workers. About 60 families were
forced to leave and were given no time
to pack any belonging. They
were told to return to their original
homelands but
most have no
other home to go to. Dozens of families were seen by the
main road,
where they slept Wednesday night. Many have young children with
them
and no money for food.
A general worker who escaped
and managed to hide has revealed that
Mpofu visited the gang
Wednesday night to check on their progress. This
means the MP
ordered the evictions of the farm workers and their families and
may
have provided the gang with the weapons, which they fired into the air
to
intimidate the farm workers. As we reported Wednesday shots were
also
fired at farm owner Wayne Munroe, as he fled from his office.
Fortunately
all the shots missed their target.
Our contact
said the attackers are not war veterans as media reports
tend to
suggest. The majority are settlers who were given plots by Mpofu and
he
uses them to do his dirty work. This group included school children as
young as 13 and women. They came in local government vehicles and
had
knobkerries and axes. A few of them had guns.
Most of
the attackers live on plots surrounding the MP's own farm.
There is
nothing growing on their plots and they often came looking for work
and
food from the Munroes. The general worker said these people would not
attack people who had helped them, without orders to do so. He
said they are
forced by top government officials like Mpofu, because
they were given
plots of land.
A group of 20 farm workers'
families are still barricaded in the
farmhouse, along with Wayne
Munroe's wife Ursula and their two children aged 2
and 4. Wayne is
barricaded in his mother's house. The invading gang is
reported to
have spent Thursday walking around the property, helping themselves to
maize from the fields and cooking outside the front door of the
farmhouse.
They are expected to resume their toy-toying
tonight.
Top government and military officials have been illegally
grabbing the
last few commercial farms left in the country, leaving
more farm workers
displaced and without a job. The police continue to
refuse to get involved.
The Zimbabwean
Friday, 02 May 2008
12:54
HARARE - Zimbabwe's military junta has shutdown all airstrips in
and
around Harare in a bid to limit the use of small private
aircraft,
ostensibly because they pose a security risk.
The
Zimbabwean on Sunday heard that orders went out a week before the
controversial March 29 poll that all airstrips be shutdown because of
"security concerns." The orders were renewed last Friday.
This is not
the first time that government has placed restrictions on
flying.
The restrictions in Harare were enforced, sources said, after
it was
rumoured that Movement for Democratic
Change president
Morgan Tsvangirai was shuttling between Zimbabwe and
neighbouring
countries using a light aircraft. The MDC has dismissed
reports of the
alleged secret visits by Tsvangirai.
In the run-up to the general
election, a helicopter that was due
to be used by Tsvangirai to
access far remote places such as
Matabeleland North, was impounded by
the authorities and the pilot
arrested but later released without
charge.
The chopper had been chartered for Tsvangirai by exiled
MDC
treasurer general Roy Bennett. Mugabe intimated at a rally then
that
the helicopter could be used to bring in arms caches.
Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe general manager Ben Ncube was
not
immediately available for comment. But a senior CAAZ officials
confirmed the closure of the airstrips and the flying restrictions
saying this was for security reasons.
"I can confirm that this has been
going on since the election as a
security measure but I do not have any
other details," he said.
A week prior to the election CAAZ and the
Airforce of Zimbabwe issued
a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) instructing the
closure of all airstrips
within a 25 nautical miles (46km) radius of
Harare International
Airport with the exception of Charles Prince
Airport in Mt Hampden
north-west of Harare.
The NOTAM was
supposed to be in force until a week after the election
but security
organs have ordered a renewal of the restriction, with
the latest
coming last Friday. Aviation sources said the authorities
wanted to
prevent all flying activity from any airstrip. Planes cannot
even be
flown into Charles Prince to operate from there in future, the
sources
said. The ban is adversely affecting farmers and business
people.
www.cathybuckle.com
2nd May 2008
Dear
Friends.
Zimbabwe's extended electoral process has become a laughing stock.
Tune in
to any comedy programme in the UK and you'll hear at least one gag
about the
Zimbabwe elections. An English friend asked me the other day,
'What exactly
is going on in Zimbabwe?' The confusion is easy to understand
and the
conflicting messages coming from the regime's supporters simply add
to the
confusion. This last week we saw Boniface Chidyasiku, the Zimbabwean
ambassador to the UN telling the BBC that whoever is ultimately declared the
winner in the presidential poll, 'There is no way anybody can do without the
other'. Two days later it was Simba Makoni on ITV saying that Robert Mugabe
wanted what was best for the Zimbabwean people! That was a government of
national unity, Makoni maintained. The footage of burning houses and
brutalised villagers accompanying Makoni's interview was perhaps unintended
irony but it served to show that Robert Mugabe's view of what was 'good for
the people' means what is good for him. Estimates put the number of dead at
twenty with hundreds of innocent men women and children caught up in the
violence in the rural areas as gangs of violent Zanu PF fanatics terrorise
anyone who 'voted the wrong way'. As always teachers in the rural schools
are in the frontline; the government has always used them as polling
officers and this time they are accused of rigging the elections in favour
of the opposition. Only yesterday the ZCTU announced that two teachers had
been beaten to death in Guruve district. No surprise then that when schools
reopened on Tuesday last there were very few teachers and, I suspect, very
few children. A friend phoned from home last week to tell me that school
fees for his three primary schools children had gone up to over a billion
per child per term. And that was for day school children! With 10 kgs of
mealie meal costing 300million, two litres of cooking oil at 700 million and
a simple bar of washing soap at 180 million ( figures from this week's
Zimbabwe Independent) it is hard to understand how Simba Makoni can claim
that Mugabe 'wants what is best for the people'
Regardless of truth
or logic the Zimbabwean propaganda machine rolls on. The
Bright One,
Zimbabwe's very own Comical Ali, Bright Matonga, this week
claimed that
'
we are also sure that the larger international community are getting to
understand that our main problems are with the British. They are behind all
these moves against us but we will stand our ground.' Well, Zimbabweans are
used to that sort of meaningless rubbish, that's nothing new but in the
current climate of fear and uncertainty caused by the long delayed election
results, people could be forgiven for wanting solutions to at least some of
their problems. Is a government of national unity the answer; the UN
Ambassador seemed to think so; Simba Makoni added his voice but the Bright
One declared on 29.04.08 before this ongoing farcical Verification process
that 'there is going to be a runoff. We have got our own results (!)' he
said and added ' if there is to be a government of national unity it cannot
be with Morgan Tsvangirai because he is a sellout. He is an agent of the
British. We can never deal with people who are not principled.'
That
word, principle' has been thrown around quite a bit this week by Mugabe
loyalists. The Chief of Police Augustine Chihuri used it in a letter he
wrote to Tendai Biti, the Secretary general of the MDC.' ' As a matter of
principle' Chihuri said he was bound to arrest Biti for revealing the
election results before the official announcement by ZEC. Whether the letter
was ever sent or received by Tendai Biti is unclear but the claim of
'principles' coming from a man who has demonstrated his total lack of any
moral integrity over the past ten years is laughable – if it were not so
tragic for the people of Zimbabwe. Augustine Chihuri is personally
responsible for the breakdown of law and order in the country. In his blind,
fanatical support for Robert Mugabe, he has used what was once a body of
principled law enforcers to become no more than a partisan force for the
ruling party. Even now as I write police officers are complicit in the
ongoing violence against the population and I do not exclude the remaining
white farmers who are still suffering violent onslaughts by so-called war
veterans while the police decline to be involved in any matter they deem to
be 'political'. The mere fact that a man or woman wears the uniform of the
ZRP does not make them a policeman. As long ago as late 2004 we all knew in
UMP that the so-called cops at the road-blocks were war vets; even then
loyalty to Mugabe and the ruling party was the criteria for Chihuri's
police. Just the other day a known killer was promoted to Assistant
Commissioner and yet Chihuri talks of 'principles'!
I am writing this
on the day after local elections here in the UK. The
results are already
known and accepted by the losers, no need for
'Verification'. But in
Zimbabwe it seems the Zanu PF government of Robert
Mugabe will hold a
runoff. They concede that Morgan Tsvangirai is the winner
but, surprise
surprise, not by a big enough margin to avoid a runoff.
Another month of
violent intimidation by the ruling party thugs, another
month of uncertainty
and fear for ordinary Zimbabweans.
A cartoon in today's UK Independent shows
a rabid Mugabe declaiming, 'I
categorically deny any sort of vote
rigging'…and holding up bunches of
ballot papers in both hands he
declares... 'I AM the Mayor of London'.
Anything's possible with Robert
Mugabe and Zanu PF!
Meanwhile, the MDC is faced with one of the most
difficult decision in its
short history : should they contest the runoff?
It's going to take courage
and clear thinking to make that decision but
first the MDC leaders must go
home, they must be there in Zimbabwe to hear
what the beaten and bloodied
Zimbabwean people have to say. Anything less is
a betrayal of the one and a
quarter million people who so courageously voted
for change. Maybe now is
the time to prove to Zimbabwe and the world once
and for all that Robert
Mugabe and all he stands for is history? One point
is crystal clear: if the
MDC does participate in a runoff, they must insist
as a precondition that
international observers go in right now before
anymore people are beaten and
tortured to death.
Yours in the
(continuing) struggle. PH
The Zimbabwean
Friday, 02 May 2008
13:53
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are
caught up
in an escapable network of mutuality. Whatever affects one
directly affects
one indirectly, writes Appiah Kusi Aomako in the Ghanaian
Chronicle, Accra.
It has been more than a month since Zimbabwe had
their presidential
and parliamentary elections. The official election
results have still not
been declared with regards to the presidential
election. Most of the
parliamentary constituencies have had their results
declared with few
constituencies still to be decided by the electoral
commission and the law
courts. One does not need to be a PHD holder to know
that the incumbent
president-Robert Mugabe and his party Zanu PF has lost
the presidential
polls. The attempt by
the government of Mugabe
to block the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
for officially declaring the
results of the last month's election has not
only become scar on the image
of government but also defeats the very
purpose of democracy.
Perhaps, there are thousand one and one reasons why final and
certified
results have not been released. The first reason is that the
regime has lost
the election to the main opposition party called the
Movement for Democratic
Change (MDC). Secondly, the regime is afraid to
stand before court to answer
questions on the fundamental human rights which
characterized the
regime.
Over the weekend, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
released the
results of recounts in 18 seats, which confirmed that Mr
Mugabe's Zanu-PF
party has lost its parliamentary majority for the first
time since
independence in 1980.
Someone may ask why has the
TRUMPET OF CONSCIENCE suddenly become a
voice in the issue of Zimbabwe.
There is saying that when Nigeria sneezes
the whole of West Africa catches
the cold. Zimbabwe has become an issue
which cannot be left to the people of
Zimbabwe alone to decide. It affects
everyone. It was Rev. Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr who said that injustice
anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Whatever affects one directly
affects one indirectly. If the regime of
Mugabe is able to succeed in his
sinister agenda by pushing the election to
run-off and bully his way through
to win, it would become lessons for some
unfortunate African leaders to
emulate.
Already, some
constitutionally elected presidents in the continent
have attempted to amend
the constitution to be in office for more than two
times.
The
deceased president of Togo called Gnassingbé Eyadema did it.
Olusegun
Obasanjo attempted to amend the constitution to be able to stay in
office
for the third time. It has become something like democrats turned
autocrats.
This new form of threat is more dangerous than military
interference in
democratic governance. Mugabe has not respected the
fundamental rights of
the people. The government of Zanu PF party has been
using intimidation,
harassment and torture as tool to weaken his opponents.
All these are
happening under a regime which calls itself democratic. If we
call what is
happening in Zimbabwe democracy, then I do not know how
autocracy will
be.
Zimbabwe today is no different from what pertained during the
regime
of Ian Smith. There is no freedom for those who yearn to breathe the
air of
freedom. If you do not sing from the same song sheet as the regime
sings
then you are singing discord. In attempt by the regime of Mugabe to do
things to tease western powers, it has brought in the wake of dire
consequences to the people. Currently inflation in Zimbabwe is almost
reaching infinity. Supply of urgent commodities has dully been
affected.
The image of the continent has dully been affected by
what is
happening in Zimbabwe. People watch what is happening in Zimbabwe on
the
television and conclude that Africa is the same all over.
The people of Zimbabwe have decided in an election. Their choice must
be
respected. You cannot stop the matching feet to the city of freedom.
Victor
Hugo once said that there is nothing so powerful in this world than
an idea
whose time has come. There is nothing than Mugabe and the Zimbabwe
state
apparatus can do to stop people who are yearning to breathe
freedom.
In liberation theology we say that evil carries the seed
of its own
destruction and that evil cannot permanently organize itself.
Historian
Charles A. Beard when asked what lesson has he learned from
history, he
said: First whom the gods would destroy they must first make mad
with power.
Second, the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind
exceedingly small.
Third, the bee fertilizes the flower it robs. Fourth,
when it is dark enough
you can see the stars.
These are the
words, not of a preacher but a hard-headed historian,
whose long and
painstaking study of history revealed to him that evil has a
self-defeating
quality. It can go a long way but then it can reach its
limit. God is always
on the side of those who do the right thing. It was
William Cullen Bryant
who said that 'truth crushed to the ground would rise
again.' Again, James
Lowell Russell said that 'though the cause of Evil
prosper, yet this Truth
alone is strong, though its portion be on the
scaffold, wrong forever on the
scaffold, yet the scaffold sways the future
and behind the dim stands God
keeping watching above his own.'
Everyone of goodwill has the right
to express his righteous
indignation about what is happening in Zimbabwe. I
speak and write on behalf
of millions of Zimbabwean voters whose decision to
choose one to govern them
has not been respected.
Today's
Moses, Morgan Tsvangirai of Zimbabwe stands before the
Zimbabwean Pharaohs,
Mugabe, the electoral commissioner and the law court
and says LET MY PEOPLE
GO.